Professional athletic trainer Bruce E. Morgan has written a book on losing weight

As a professional athletic trainer who spent 17 years working with the San Jose Earthquakes soccer team and holder of a master's degree in exercise and sports science, Bruce E. Morgan knows that the world didn't need another book on losing weight.

Yet, the 55-year-old Willow Glen resident couldn't help himself.

"I've long felt I had it me," he says of his decision to write the newly published Living Life Lean: A Practical Guide to Achieving and Maintaining a Healthy Weight.

"Exercise, fitness and weight management have been a lifelong passion of mine, and it's a critical issue in the United States."

Morgan acknowledges that a quick online search for books on weight loss brings up more than 80,000 titles, but he also points to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: More than two-thirds of Americans are overweight; nearly one-third of children and adolescents are overweight; and obesity is the second leading cause of premature death, after smoking, and is linked to 70 percent of heart disease and 80 percent of diabetes.

Morgan doesn't mince words either in person or in Living Life Lean: "My central thesis is one must eat less and do more, the idea of being sedentary and fit are mutually exclusive terms.

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"Most people who pick up weight loss books want a quick fix," he adds. "There are no quick fixes. It really comes down to simple math--calories in must be exceeded by calories out if one hopes to lose weight."

Morgan acknowledges that few people are real athletes and says he doesn't think it's necessary for us to be athletes or marathon runners.

"What we can't be are couch potatoes. We have to get up and move." He argues that the idea of being sedentary is counter to who we are as a species.

"Life with its many conveniences makes it possible for us not to be mobile; there are escalators, elevators and people movers, and we glom onto these things to make life easier. We have to eschew these conveniences."

Morgan says his book contains no recipes and no six-minute body sculpting exercise programs.

"In my estimation, those things are quick fixes and they play into our psyche because we want the quick fix. We want to continue to lead our lives as they are but weigh less."

Living Life Lean offers plenty of information on calories, including such discouraging tidbits as that if you eat one Oreo cookie with its 50 calories a day, in a year you can expect to gain five pounds.

Yet, Morgan understands that food selection is a very personal thing and writes, "If eliminating those foods from your diet would make you miserable in the process, then ways must be found to include them, if perhaps only in a limited way."

Morgan suggests keeping a food log to learn about your tastes, your nutritional weaknesses and if a particular mood, circumstance or attitude is connected with your choice of food.

This will not only help determine if you are using food as a coping device, he says, but it will also make you aware if you are eating enough fruits and vegetables, how much a percentage fast foods are of your diet and how often junk food finds its way in.

Although Morgan has made a living as an athletic trainer, he doesn't advocate the use of exercise machines or even the merits of jogging for everyone.

Rather, he points out that walking is an excellent way to go "because it requires no special equipment or specific facility [and] one can walk virtually anywhere." Neither does it require a particular time commitment, he adds.

"Wherever or whenever the opportunity presents, walk."

Living Life Lean is written in the first person, and Morgan doesn't hesitate to share his opinions on a variety of topics from professional athletes who use performance enhancing drugs to philandering politicians, alcohol and soft drinks.

Yet, his commitment to helping those willing to help themselves to lose weight is sincere.

Landon Donovan, who helped the Earthquakes win their first Major League Soccer Cup Championship and now plays with the LA Galaxy, says of Morgan's book, "I've always known Bruce to be a straight shooter; he's never been one to sugarcoat his thoughts. In his book he's taken the same approach. In my mind his message is one that rings true."

'Living Life Lean' is available at Hicklebee's in Willow Glen and online through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.